Rafferty spent the next couple of days waiting for a lecture that never came. Either word of her and Katrin's unauthorized adventure had never gotten back to Max and the rest of the Priory, or they knew, but they didn't care.

Either way, Rafferty was confused.

She did get a lecture from Trevor. Several of them, in fact. But at least she managed to get her Jack to agree, by herself agreeing to be more responsible, to treat her deeply bruised hand himself, without mentioning it to anyone else.

Rafferty had to avoid the Box, much to her dismay. It would be too hard to fight one handed without anyone asking why. So she mostly hid in her room, fretting about her inaction during the ambush.

That made her an easy target for Blaspheme, who was desperate to get all the details of Rafferty's little jaunt. She finally broke down and told Blaspheme everything. Rafferty must have gushed a bit too much when she described Katrin's tornado trick, because Blaspheme had curtly replied that she would have just shot the pricks, in a way that was equal parts dismissive and jealous.

On the second night, Katrin knocked on her door again.

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"You busy?" Katrin asked.

"No," said Rafferty cautiously.

"The other night was fun," said Katrin.

"Yeah," said Rafferty, even more cautiously.

Except for the part where everyone did something but me, but she doesn't seem to be mentioning that.

"I've never been shot at before. By a person, anyway," Katrin said.

"Really?" asked Rafferty.

What am I doing wrong then?

"Well, we can't all be Rafferty," Katrin teased. "Anyway, if we really hurry, we can get to the edge of the Breaks and back before morning. There's this little strip I know. Sometimes you get lucky and find one passing through. I mean, we might not, but it's always fun to look. You in?"

Rafferty considered the likelihood that she would return even more banged up than she currently was, the probable dirty looks from Blaspheme, and the inevitable Trevor meltdown. She found that the decision was an easy one.

"I'm in," she said.

They didn't find anything, but Rafferty wasn't sure that mattered. The girls leapt as high as they could over the small peaks that dotted the border of the Breaks, hoping to catch a glint of metal in the distance. Each leap was higher than the last, as the pair tried to outdo each other, landing hard in the dust. The bruises from the impact wouldn't hurt until the next day. For now, it was too much fun.

They raced the sunrise to the horizon, and got back to the Abbey just before morning. As Rafferty climbed the stairs to her room, her heart pounding from the sprint, she felt content.

Because this was the Rafferty that did things.

When she reached J Hall, she ran into Sheridan, who had apparently returned from her agricultural assignment.

Sheridan asked her where she had been.

Rafferty looked her friend right in the eye, and lied.

She wasn't exactly sure why she did that.